1792 American Playbill Broadside: By Authority Of The Virginia Company, On Friday Evening, August 3rd, 1792, Will Be Presented A Celebrated Comedy (Written By Mrs. Cowley) Never Performed Here Called MORE WAYS THAN ONE, or A NEW WAY TO CATCH HEARTS, A Song By Mrs. Decker, A Song By Mr. Courtney, To Which Will Be Added A Comedy Of 3 Acts, Written By Mr. Coleman, Jun., Author Of Inkle and Yarrico, Battle Of Hexam, etc, called WAYS AND MEANS, or A TRIP TO DOVER, The Whole To Conclude With Several Surprising Feats Of Activity in LOFTY TUMBLING, By Mr. Sully Junior, Who Was Justly The Admiration Of Britain, Assisted By Master Sully. Clown to the Performance, Mr. Sully Sen.

The Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, CA, . 9" by 15 3/4". Huntington Library reproduction, from the original in its collection, of a playbill broadside announcing two comedies plus singers and a tumbling act to be presented in Philadelphia by Thomas Wade West and John Bignall’s American theatrical troupe The Virginia Company Of Comedians Friday evening, August 3rd, 1792. First on the bill is "More Ways Than One," authored by successful 18th century English dramatist Hannah Cowley, creator of many major plays of the period, who famously accused playwright Hannah More of plagiarism. "Ways And Means," the second play, was authored by George Coleman Jr., popular London dramatist who was later made Examiner Of Plays by the British Crown, but whose alleged double standard and severity of censorship with the works of others resulted in extreme unpopularity with his colleagues. Tickets are advertised for purchase at Prichard’s Book Store, fixing the location of this program in Philadelphia, but the theater itself remains unidentified, though it was almost certainly the Southwark. Seilhamer’s "History Of American Theater" shows Hallam and Henry’s Old American Company not engaged at the Southwark until September, a month later, giving plenty of time for the staging of this visiting Virginia Company show. Of added interest is the advertised appearance of eminent early American painter Thomas Sully (1783-1872) as a boyhood tumbler. Sully, noted for his portraits of such worthies as Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and John Quincy Adams, as well as for the historic oil of Washington’s "Passage Of The Delaware," was the son of actors Matthew and Sarah Sully (nee Chester), who emigrated from England with their children, arriving at Charleston, South Carolina in March of 1792, just five months previous. Matthew Sully’s sister Margaret had earlier married Thomas Wade West, thus providing the connection to Charleston and the Virginia Company troupe. The nine-year-old Sully appears here identified simply as "Master Sully," together with his father Matthew ("Mr. Sully Sen.") and brother ("Mr. Sully Junior"). His mother ("Mrs. Sully"), and two of his sisters ("Miss Sully" and "Miss E. Sully") are given billing in "Ways And Means," the second comedy that night. Thomas Sully’s home in Philadelphia is today a National Historic Landmark. Printed on double-weight chain laid paper and stamped on the verso "Reproduced by the Huntington Library and Art Gallery from the original in its collection." Fine condition.